1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lid member for putting a lid on a battery storage section, a recording medium storage section, or an external connection terminal storage section of an electronic device such as a notebook computer, and to an electronic device using the lid member, especially relates to a lid member allowing certain water proof and dust proof and to an electronic device using the lid member.
2. Background Art
Recently, electronic devices having high portability have become widespread, and are used very often not only in doors but also out of doors. Therefore, the electronic devices have been demanded to have vibration resistance and impact resistance against carrying or fall and have environmental resistance against temperature/humidity variation of the ambient environment. Especially, even notebook computers have been more frequently used on the condition of a tough ambient environment such as the outdoors or construction sites, and certain locking performance considering the environmental resistance has been demanded.
An electronic device such as a portable notebook computer has a battery storage section, a recording medium storage section, or an external connection terminal storage section. The electronic device is usually carried out while the lid is put on it and closed by the lid member, and the lid is opened in order to replace the recording medium or the battery for information processing regardless of indoors or outdoors and in order to connect an external device to the external connection terminal.
Examples where the locking structures of various storage sections of such an electronic device are improved to secure the water proof are disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publications No. 2001-21979, No. 2005-347432, No. 2003-142841, and No. 2002-176481.
In all of the above-mentioned documents, however, a packing made of an elastic member is disposed in a lid member, and the lid member is fixed to an electronic device body through a locking claw that is made of a material different from that of the case of the electronic device. In such a structure, disadvantageously, a difference in expansion/contraction rate occurs between materials dependently on the ambient environment such as temperature variation and hence sufficient locking performance cannot be secured. Uniform pressing force cannot be applied to the packing dependently on the layout of the locking claw, so that the essential function of the lid member, namely putting a lid, becomes insufficient, and the water proof and dust proof cannot be performed.
Also in a structure where the packing and the lid member are integrated and simultaneously moved and the lid member is locked to the case of the electronic device, the difference in expansion/contraction rate between the packing and the lid member is apt to cause degradation of the packing, disadvantageously.